Yesterday, we posted a video interview with team owner Steve Bauer, from the 2011 team's first get-together at its St Catharines headquarters after the announcement that it has been awarded Professional Continental status by the UCI. Below is the official team announcement and rider list, plus video interviews with riders - both new and returning to the team.

Official release:

Cycle Sport Management is proud to announce that Team SpiderTech powered by C10 is the very first Canadian cycling team to earn a Professional Continental licence from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) on Friday, December 10t in Aigle, Switzerland. Thanks to this status, Steve Bauer's team is eligible to participate in the highest ranked UCI races in the world.

SpiderTech Inc. will continue to be the lead sponsor of the team powered by C10, a consortium of leading Canadian corporations. C10 "made in Canada" is the newly branded message the team wishes to communicate to the world. "Our strength and continuity of our financial support for the Team has always come from a collaboration of top Canadian companies. We continue to grow stronger in this regard and we are proud of this unique relationship with our sponsors," says Bauer.

SpiderTech, BlackBerry, NRS Brakes, PineTree Capital, Planet Energy and Saputo are the initial members of C10 Made in Canada.

The team roster for 2011 will be comprised of 13 Canadians and 3 North American athletes. Returning from the 2010 formation are Mark Batty, Lucas Euser (USA), Martin Gilbert, Keven Lacombe, Bruno Langlois, François Parisien, Andrew Randell and Ryan Roth, and the three under 23 riders David Boily, Flavio De Luna (MEX) and Guillaume Boivin, who has won a bronze medal at the World Cycling Championships in Australia last October. "We are very happy to be building our team with big talents such as Guillaume. His performance in Australia will give the entire team confidence in our new challenges ahead next season," underlined team manager Josée Larocque.

New additions to the 2011 roster are Canadian road Champion Will Routley, Melbourne Track World Cup Silver medallist Zach Bell and Ryan Anderson, all three from British Columbia. Rounding out the roster are the Canadian U23 Time Trial Champion, Hugo Houle from Québec, and Pro Tour veteran Pat (Jonathan) McCarty from Texas, USA. Now that the team has been registered by the UCI; more riders are being considered for additions to the current roster.

The most exciting benefit of the team's new status will be to compete in the two UCI World Tour events of Canada alongside the top 18 Pro Tour teams of the world. The team has already received an official invitation from Serge Arsenault, the race organiser of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. "Giving to Canada its first Professional Continental team is a historical page in the cycling book of this wonderful sport," wrote Mr. Arsenault to the team.

For the spring, a three month campaign in Europe, beginning in February, is currently being planned. The team will complete this campaign with the Presidential Tour of Turkey, for which an invitation has already been secured. The team returns to North America with the goal to race the Amgen Tour of California, TD Bank International Classic Philadelphia, and Tour de Beauce. "It has been a challenging mission for our company to gain division two status, however, it is a critical step forward in our long term goals to compete on the World Tour and the Tour de France, ' reveals Bauer.